A bailleur, a French term, is a landowner who outsourced uncultivated parcels of land as part of an early
Middle Age
Middle age (or middle adulthood) is the age range of the years halfway between childhood and old age. The exact range is subject to public debate, but the term is commonly used to denote the age range from 45 to 65 years.
Overall
This time span ...
sharecropping system known as ''complant'' — a precursor to the
métayage system. Under this system, a laborer known as a
prendeur would agree to cultivate land owned by the ''bailleur'' in exchange for ownership of the crop and its production. For use of the ''bailleur's'' soil, the ''prendeur'' promised a share (normally a third to two-thirds) of the crop's production or its revenue to the ''bailleur''. The length of this partnership varied, and would sometimes extend over generations.
[Hugh Johnson, ''Vintage: The Story of Wine'' pg 116. Simon and Schuster 1989]
References
Agricultural labor
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